Friday, October 31, 2014

The refurbished and upgraded Hangar 3 (ex-RAF Hangar) and supporting facilities at the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) Air Wing has been inaugurated.AFM Commander J. Curmi said more than €2 million were invested in
the project to bring the Air Wing facilities to a standard that would
reflect the technologically advanced assets recently purchased by the
AFM and improve personnel environment. The facilities will host the two
newly acquired AW 139 helicopters.National Security Minister M. Mallia described the project as "a
dream come true" for the AFM. The hangar, he said, was a monument that
reflected the AFM’s hard work to ensure national security and for border
control. These vital roles needed the highest possible standards for the
maintenance of the modern air assets which would be provided by this new
investment.This project was coordinated by the Logistics Branch at HQ AFM,
headed by Col. P. Vassallo and administered by Lt. Col. C. Attard and
Lt. Col. R. Vella. The Ex RAF hangar project was funded through the General Programme:
Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows 2007-2013 with a
co-financing rate of 75% EU funds and 25% national
funds. (Source: timesofmalta.com, 31-Oct-2014)

The French Navy diving support ship FS Alize (A 645) has sailed in Valletta Port this morning on a courtesy visit.FS Alize is presently berthing alongside at Boiler wharf, and she's expected to sail from Malta on Monday, November 3rd. (30-Oct-2014)

Air Malta halved its losses during the financial year ending March
2014 and is projecting to maintain its position for the year ending
March 2015, despite several major setbacks such as the closure of the
Libyan routes and increased competition in the peak summer months.Audited figures announced during the Air Malta Annual General Meeting
showed that the airline posted a loss of €16 million (US$20.3 million)
for the year ending at the end of March 2014, compared to €31 million
(US$39.4 million) loss registered during the financial year ending at the
end of March 2013.The numbers show that Air Malta is moving in the right direction
according to its Restructuring Plan, although it did not manage to reach
the more ambitious annual targets of a €15 million loss in 2013 and a
profit in 2014.Air Malta chairperson M.a Micallef said the current financial year
had been directly hit by the closure of the Libyan routes (losing the
airline around €1 million per month, including incremental revenue from
transit business) and a 20% increase in seat capacity of other airlines
in the peak months.“We were informed that our revenues would be hit by 10% and the
bottom line was forecasted to be a loss of €25 million, unless immediate
preventive actions were taken. We set ourselves a target that under
these circumstances we try and target a bottom line of a loss of €16
million for Year ending March 2015,” said Ms Micallef, who was appointed
chairperson in July.Ms Micallef also highlighted the importance of thinking about the
long term strategy of Air Malta, beyond the restructuring plan.“In the longer term, it remains clear to me that the realities of the
industry are such that the airline’s profit margins will always remain
wafer thin unless we rethink our business model to truly ensure
viability. We need to get out of restructuring mode and start thinking
of long-term sustainability beyond 2016. We will need the economies of
scale that we can never achieve with our size,” she said.“If we are to make this work – and I am confident we will – we need
everyone’s support. In some cases, this means holding back. That is my
message to politicians, both Government and Opposition. The same applies
to all the representatives of the various stakeholders, who for the
first time have been invited to this AGM.”“The reality is that this is Air Malta’s last chance for long term
survival. We have 17 months left to get this right,” she concluded.Meanwhile, newly-appointed CEO Philip Micallef outlined his vision
for the airline and highlighted a number of initiatives being taken to
bring the airline to profitability by 2016.“One of the key missions of this new management team is to work much
more closely with Malta Tourism Authority and other key stakeholders.
MTA and Air Malta have a joint responsibility to attract tourism to the
Maltese islands. In the past, the two entities complemented each other’s
work but did not combine their resources as effectively as they could.
We are holding joint meetings with tourism operators in various markets
as Air Malta seeks to intensify its presence in foreign markets. We have
entered into a new era of positive collaboration,” he said.Similar joint initiatives are happening with Malta Hotels and
Restaurants Association (MHRA) and Federated Association of Travel &
Tourism Agents (FATTA).“Our approach has been particularly successful with German tour
operators, where committed seats have increased by 300% in winter
2014/15. Similar encouraging results are already being achieved on our
Amsterdam and Brussels routes. Our code-share with Air France is doing
even better, with a ten-fold increase in passenger revenue,” Mr Micallef
told the AGM.“At the end of summer we launched an aggressive promotion with a 25%
discount, for travel from November 2014, to get early bookings for
winter. In aggregate, early bookings for winter strongly indicate that
we could start to mitigate the losses in passengers from Libya and
slow-down in Russia through increased sales on other routes,” he said.Mr Micallef said Air Malta now needed to improve its IT systems to
facilitate customer experience and increase revenue by providing a more
attractive pricing system for passengers.“In the face of increased supply on some of our core routes during
the peak summer months, we must respond by taking advantage of
additional revenue streams. We are starting with generating ancillary
revenue pre-flight through product enhancements and the right technology
to promote the sale of these products. We are also looking at
developing ancillary products while on board,” he said.(Source: AirMalta, 28-Oct-2014)

Friday, October 24, 2014

Greek private airline Aegean Airlines is to start flights to Malta IAP in the summer season next year from its hub at Athens IAP. The airline said it intends to initially operate to Malta on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in the afternoon. It eventually plans to add another flight on Sunday (Source: timesofmalta.com, 24-Oct-2014)

Iraq's Al-Naser
Airlines has taken
delivery of its maiden A340-600 9H-TEQ
(cn 416), formerly with Virgin Atlantic as
G-VOGE. The quadjet, which was ferried from Malta to Baghdad on Oct. 18th, is on wet-lease from Hi Fly subsidiary, Hi Fly Malta, which in
turn sourced it from Voltrex Leasing.According to a statement issued to
ch-aviation by Hi Fly Malta, the lease agreement is only temporary as its long
term plans for the aircraft involve its reconfiguration into a 475-seater to be
used for Hajj operations. "Until reconfiguration Supplemental Type
Certificate is approved, which might take up to one year, Hi Fly is
subleasing the aircraft to Al-Naser in current configuration with crew and
maintenance support to supplement their current fleet of A346s that are
planned to be operated for Iraqi Airways," it said. (Source: ch-aviation.com, 24-Oct-2014)

The Royal Navy of Oman full-rigged ship RNOV Shabab Oman II has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit.Royal Navy of Oman has taken delivery of RNOV Shabab Oman on Sep. 12, 2004, during a ceremony at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Vlissingen, the Netherlands.RNOV Shabab Oman II was designed by Dykstra Naval Architects, Amsterdam. Her keel was laid in Mar. 2013. She was built by Damen Shipyards, Galtati, Romania and launched on Dec. 2nd, 2013. In Jan. 2014, she was towed to Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (in Vlissingen) for fitting out, including the fitting of her masts.RNOV Shabab Oman II will also serve as the training for the Royal Navy of Oman, having replaced the previous sail training ship of the same name (RNOV Shabab Oman, built in 1977).THe Royal Navy of Oman sail training ship is presently berthing alongside at Boiler wharf (in the French creek), and she's expected to sail for Malta this Thursday, Oct. 23rd (21-Oct-2014)

Saturday, October 18, 2014

A Ryanair Boeing B737-800 (EI-EPC), performing flight FR-6696 from Malta IAP to Edinburgh (U.K.) had to return back to Malta IAP yesterday evening after reporting a problem with the nose gear. The aircraft departed from RWY 13 at 1955lt, levelled off at 8000 feet to troubleshoot the problem and then to dump fuel, and re-landed safely RWY 13 at 2137lt. The stranded passengers where later trasferred to one of Ryanair's Malta-based B738s (EI-EVN) to operate the flight to Edinburgh. It departed Malta IAP at 0029lt (on 18th).

Thursday, October 9, 2014

SWISS today announced the launch of 19 routes across Europe in summer 2015 season. Amongst these new routes, is the luanching of the new route between Zurich and Malta IAP with effect from Jul. 1st, 2015. SWISS will be operating four weekly flights, Zurich-Malta-Zurich, using Airbus A320s. (Source: airlineroute.net, 7-Oct-2014)

Malta IAP registered a 2.4% increase in traffic last month, hosting a total of 463,215 passengers. The growth is seen in light of the closure of the Libyan airspace since
mid-July, which has resulted in a passenger drop within this market.

During September, the total number of landings and take-offs at the
airport increased by 0.9% to 3,199 while the number of people
that could be flown to and from Malta (seat capacity) grew marginally by
1.1% to 540,423.

France was the market to register the largest growth at 11.1%,
thanks to increased demand on the Paris route. Traffic from Italy and U.K. grew by 8.9% and 6.7% respectively. Meanwhile, Spain
and Germany saw a decrease of 11% and 5.7% respectively.

Between January and September this year, Malta IAP saw an increase of 7.2% when compared to last year’s figures,
hosting a total of 3,385,808 passengers so far this year. The maximum take-off weight increased by 0.4% and cargo mail increased by 7.9%. (Source: maltairport.com, 7-Oct-2014)

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Two German Navy Gepard-class fast-patrol boats FGS S79 Wiesel (P 6129) and FGS S75 Zobel (P 6125) have sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this afternoon on a courtesy visit. The German fast-patrol boats are presently berthed alongside at Laboratory wharf, and are expected to sail from Malta tomorrow, October 5th. (4-Oct-2014)